The reality of Fallujah

The battles for Fallujah have been in the news lately. Some Marines feel bad because their destruction of Fallujah was their greatest Iraq war "victory" and now what remains of the city has fallen to al-Qaeda.

Before you start tearing up over this, I suggest you read Arthur Silber's essay on the subject and/or watch the videos on Chris Floyd's website. Yeah, it was a "victory" ... but this sort of "victory" ought to turn your stomach more than it makes you proud to be an American:

http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2014/01/when-atrocity-is-central-to-your-being.html

http://www.chris-floyd.com/fallujah/index.htm

"One year ago this week, US-led occupying forces launched a devastating assault on the Iraqi city of Fallujah. The mood was set by Lt Col Gary Brandl: 'The enemy has got a face. He's called Satan. He's in Fallujah. And we're going to destroy him.'

"The assault was preceded by eight weeks of aerial bombardment. US troops cut off the city's water, power and food supplies, condemned as a violation of the Geneva convention by a UN special rapporteur, who accused occupying forces of "using hunger and deprivation of water as a weapon of war against the civilian population". Two-thirds of the city's 300,000 residents fled, many to squatters' camps without basic facilities.

"By the end of operations, the city lay in ruins. Fallujah's compensation commissioner has reported that 36,000 of the city's 50,000 homes were destroyed, along with 60 schools and 65 mosques and shrines. The US claims that 2,000 died, most of them fighters. Other sources disagree. When medical teams arrived in January they collected more than 700 bodies in only one third of the city. Iraqi NGOs and medical workers estimate between 4,000 and 6,000 dead, mostly civilians -- a proportionately higher death rate than in Coventry and London during the blitz."

Are they kidding? Did the Marines really think they were fighting Satan? If they did, we (and they) are in serious trouble.

By the way, neither the US nor the Iraqis ever rebuilt Fallujah. In that context, the inhabitants may actually be relieved that al-Qaeda is finally there.

Or are they? This essay by a Marine who participated in the destruction of Fallujah challenges the basic "facts" being presented by the US media:

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/10/iraq-fallujah-destruction-alqaida-maliki

Two things are certain: we never should have invaded Iraq, and this ain't over by a long shot.